17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, May 12, 1912:Went to Sunday School this morning. I had to go equipped with an umbrella. Carrie was over this afternoon. Catherine Rhone came down. We went after some lilacs and I guess we were well weighted down with them. I was weighed today weighing one pound less than I did a month ago. It is raining cats and dogs tonight.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Sometimes I absolutely love Grandma’s train of thought. She was writing about picking lilacs with her friends Carrie Stout and Catherine Rhone—and said that they were “weighted down” by the lilacs. That apparently reminded her that she’d lost a pound of weight. She seemed pleased—I wonder if teens worried about their weight back then like they do now.
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, May 6, 1912: It is hard to realize that today was the last day. We had our annual banquet, and I guess we all enjoyed it. At least I did. Mr. Dunkle, our teacher, acted the part of toastmaster. We drank water flavored with lemon to each other’s health, but that was soon over and we vacated our places at the table.
I recited my oration without omitting a single word, but I believe that it wasn’t said none too well. Swiftly today drew to a close. Nor can I say that as school is done, I am glad. My heart is filled with sadness. What I will do next year, when school closes I do not know. As I graduate I will not be able to look forward to the next year. For awhile I bid adieu to my school days.
The banquet probably took place at the McEwensville Community Hall and Picnic Shelter. It has been there for more than a hundred years and hasn’t changed much over the years. It has a long history of being used for community events. There is an auditorium with a stage inside.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
The last day of the school year—with the excitement of the banquet tinged with the realization that school was over for the summer–sounds like it was bittersweet for Grandma. Probably parents and other family members attended the program.
The “trial” that Grandma worried about in yesterday’s diary entry apparently was her oration. She wrote the speech on April 16, 17 and 18; and finalized and memorized it on April 22 and 23. I suppose that she practiced it in class a few times after those entries in preparation for the banquet, but never mentioned it again in the diary until this entry.
I don’t think that it’s very clear from the diary entry, but Grandma had one more year of school to complete before she graduated. She attended an old-fashioned three-year high school, and in 1912 she completed the second year. She was just worrying about her future after graduation, which won’t occur for another year. She always seemed to need to worry about something . . . sigh. . . but I guess that’s just human nature.
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, May 1, 1912:
April’s done and gone forever,
May springs forth in all her splendor
All the earth is clothed in beauty
When we do our loyal duty.
I am overshadowed by the gloom of a gathering cloud. All winter it has been growing bigger and bigger until now it is ready to burst upon me in all its fury. I must brave the consequences, yet I will retain a bit of hope. I’ve passed before. I hope to do so again. I may win after all.
Recent photo of a beautiful spring day in McEwensville. The old brick building that once housed the school is in the background.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma included a poem on the first day of each month. Some of them are a little better than others. I’m still uncertain whether Grandma wrote the poems for the first of each month or if she copied them from some source.
This month I’m leaning towards thinking that she copied them since there is such an emotional disconnect between the poem and her impending sense of gloom.
Grandma first mentioned the upcoming finals and her worries about whether she would pass on April 25—yet she hasn’t mentioned actually studying in any of the exams.
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, April 28, 1912: Went to Sunday School this morning. Jimmie went along. Carrie and I went for arbutus and wound up by taking a walk. Went to church this evening. Sported my new hat.
Trailing Arbutus (Mayflower)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Carrie referred to her friend Carrie Stout, and Jimmie was her 6-year-old brother.
Trailing arbutus is a small white flower. A hundred years ago picking trailing arbutus apparently was a popular springtime activity.
I even noticed a short article about arbutus when I was recently looking through microfilms of the local newspaper. The April 8, 1912 issue of the Milton Evening Standard had the following article:
Arbutus must have a relatively long blooming season, since they still were in bloom on the 28th.
In 1911, Grandma also mentioned picking trailing arbutus—that time with her two sisters:
Besse was out this afternoon. We three kids went for arbutus and I got some this time. . .
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, April 17, 1912: At last I have managed to get a subject that I think will suit me. I read it over this evening. It was very interesting to read.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
The previous day Grandma wrote that she was trying to find a topic for a presentation on the upcoming last day of school. What was the interesting subject that Grandma came up with? I wonder what types of topics were considered appropriate back then.
The school year was shorter a hundred years ago—and length varied a lot between one school and the next. For example, the school year at the one-room school-house where Grandma’s sister Ruth taught ended on March 27.
SCHOOLS IN THE COUNTRY
ARE NOW CLOSING
Schools in the rural districts of Northumberland county are closing for the vacation of several months, and will not resume until the fall. In the rural districts many of these schools closed this week, and the various teachers will be seeking employment elsewhere until time shall travel over a course of perhaps several months, when they will be found behind the teacher’s desk, instructing young minds and in some cases wielding the rod, urging some tardy loiterer along the paths of knowledge.
Seven months is the average school term in the rural districts, and at the close of March and the beginning of April the school boy looks for the close of the school, and incidentally helps his father in the preparation of the soil for the planting of the crops.
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, March 21, 1912: On the first day of spring the ground is white with snow. My seventeenth birthday dawned this morning. Tried to make the most of it. I received two presents. I am staying up later this evening to study longer, also want to see the passing of my birthday.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I hereby truthfully resolve to be a better and more useful girl in the future than I have been in the past, and may this birthday resolution never be broken.
I sign myself,
Helena Muffly,
Mar. 21, 1911
I wonder if Grandma remembered her resolution—and if she felt like she’d kept it over the course of the year.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, March 19, 1912: We got our report cards to day. It seems to me he marks rather hard in some things. I got my marks raised by two points in deportment, but I don’t see as I’ve improved any in that direction since last month. He was up to visit our school today.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I’m surprised that high school students received grades in “deportment” a hundred years ago.
According to The Free Dictionary, deportment means “the manner in which a person behaves.” At least the teacher apparently was pleased with Grandma’s behavior.
A few days before Grandma received her February report card she’d gotten a new teacher. The old one had quit mid-year. He caught her cheating shortly before he quit. I wonder if her February deportment grade had been affected by that incident—and if her grade had gone up in March because there were no more cheating incidents.
